The Silmarillion is J.R.R. Tolkien's tragic, operatic history of the First Age of Middle-Earth, essential background material for serious readers of the classic Lord of the Rings saga. Tolkien's work sets the standard for fantasy, and this audio version of the "Bible of Middle-Earth" does The Silmarillion justice. Martin Shaw's reading is grave and resonant, conveying all the powerful events and emotions that shaped elven and human history long before Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf and all the rest embarked on their quests. Beginning with the Music of the Ainur, The Silmarillion tells a tale of the Elder Days, when Elves and Men became estranged by the Dark Lord Morgoth's lust for the Silmarils, pure and powerful magic jewels. Even the love between a human warrior and the daughter of the Elven king cannot defeat Morgoth, but the War of Wrath finally brings down the Dark Lord. Peace reigns until the evil Sauron recovers the Rings of Power and sets the stage for the events told in the Lord of the Rings. This is epic fantasy at its finest, thrillingly read and gloriously unabridged. (Running time: 14 hours, 6 CDs)

The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the RIngs look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.

The title Silmarillion is shortened from Quenta Silmarillion, "The History of the Silmarils," the three great jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves, in which he imprisoned the light of the Two Trees that illumined Valinor, the land of the gods. When Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, destroyed the Trees, that light lived on only in the Silmarils; Morgoth seized them and set them in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his people against the gods, their exile in Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroisim of Elves and Men, against the great Enemy.

The book includes several other, shorter works beside The Silmarillion proper. Preceding it are "Ainulindale," the myth of Creation, and "Valaquenta," in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is set forth. After The Silmarillion is "Akallabeth," the story of the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age; completing the volume is "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," in which the events of The Lord of the Rings are treated in the manner of The Silmarillion.

This new edition of The Silmarillion contains the revised and corrected
"second edition" text and, by way of introduction, a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1951, which provides a brilliant exposition of his conception of the earlier Ages. It also contains almost fifty full-color illustrations by the artist Ted Nasmith, many of which appear for the first time.

I purchased the paperback because they were out of hardcovers. The hardcover appears to have pictures. I have not yet read the Hobbit or the LORs. I intend to read them as well. I do own the extended DVD version of the LOR. I was told by many who have read the Hobbit and the LOR to NOT waste my time or rack my brain trying to read the Silmarillion. I tend to agree with them: however, for different reasons. Let me start by saying that this piece of literary work is simply a JRR Tolkien Masterpiece. It is clearly a mind expanding experience to read this book. But why would I not read it if I could go back in time before I made the choice to read it? The reason is that JRR Tolkien starts out painting such beautiful planes of existence of unbridled bliss! Places that the reader can go to! Places created by the Valar, the Maiar and later the Elves. Then at the noon tide, Melkor, a Vala later called Morgoth chooses to destroy it all? The majority of this book is devoted to this downward spiral into unrecoverable darkness. I actually experienced a sense of depression while enduring the absolute hopelessness of it all. With the coming of men celebrating and actually championing ignorance and darkness, it becomes a marathon Shakespearian tragedy. So to sum up it up, while I didn't mind the fact that JRR Tolkien will change the name of a person, place or thing as many as a dozen times and then choose to randomly refer to the one of dozen names during the reading experience since I love to decode, I did not care for the painful downward spiral into the pits of darkness that go deeper than Hell itself.

Given that; I now understand the LOR movies. Watching the movies are a blast but it is hard to follow them. For instance I could never understand how Sauron came into existence. Now I know he was a Maia that specialized in Smithing. In the first age Sauron was lured by Melkor, a Vala, to serve him. When Melkor was rechained by the Valar and sent to the void, Sauron was left as the highest ranking dark lord. Since Sauron was a Maia that was gifted in Smithing, he created and enchanted the Ring to rule them all. For me this is the true gift of information from this book.

Of greater interest is the Second Age, where Middle Earth was ruled by the Numenoreans. Again the same cycle of tragedy. The Valar create the Garden of Eden called Numenor for men located east of Valinor. Then after twenty some Kings, the Numenoreans decide to worship Sauron!!!!? What? The Numenoreons wage war on Valinor and say good bye to paradise. This becomes the JRR Tolkien version of Atlantis.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a book of unbridled contrast of good vs evil or duality with evil being the greater of the polarities. Evil is ignorance. In this book evil becomes the predictable wrong choice of Elves and men.

This complete and unabridged performance of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion by Martin Shaw is as much of a delight to the ears as were the lights of the Silmarils to the eyes of all who are fortunate enough to have beheld them. The eloquent prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, created by J. R. R. Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher, comes alive as you listen to Shaw. Each character's voice and personality comes through, names I found difficult to read flow smoothly rather than interrupt the story. All too soon the 13 CD-ROMs were completed during my twice a week 60-mile round trip commutes and my short drives around home. After a break for the holidays, I will start with number one again. They are absolutely superb.

The Simarillion--what can I say?
One of the greatest books in every way.
In language, in tone, in subject matter,
Most other literature compared just shatter.
A history of woe, mixed with hope.
Someday Middle-Earth shall stop its downward slope.
The Elves will stop fighting for the Silmarils--
Those mighty jewels with which legend overfills--
Which through the ages have driven elves to kill,
Hatred in their hearts to fill,
Drove them to betray their kin,
And caused their hearts to lose peace within.
Someday this shall cease, at the very end.
When Beren and Luthien are only known by song,
When the lives of the Elves have grown weary and long,
Driving them to the land of Valinor,
Where they shall find peace, and joy evermore.
Yet what of the Men, and the Dwarvish clans?
Shall they be left desolate, until the last one stands?
This is not Eru's plan for his creation.
All of his creatures, of every nation,
That did not submit to the evils of Morgoth--
Though their suffering was great under his torment wroth;
The wars of the ages, the Orcs of Angband,
Bloodshed and torture and fear throughout the lands--
These who did not bow, shall join in the great song
That Eru had planned for all to sing ages long
In joy and peace, and true fulfillment.
When Morgoth is chained, to suffer the torment
Of his own mind, as he exists in the Void.
Then shall Middle-Earth, and all of Arda,
Live in peace, in innocence's bright aura.

If you like what you read
On this page that you see
Then you must proceed--
You truly do need--
The Simarillion to read.

Ryan Robledo
Author of the Aelnathan:

I had read the Hobbit and the trilogy of the rings and thought the The Silmarillion would be a worthwhile read. However, I found the book to be unreadable. I am not certain what the author had done differently, but I could not get past the first 40 pages and those pages required serious work to read. It looked as if the author had some very good ideas but he had put it in a manner that was difficult to understand.

Perhaps you will do better than I did. However, this was one of only a few books that I could not finish because I had a hard time understanding what the author was communicating.

If you are interested in this book, I suggest getting it from a library and trying to read it, before spending money on it.

This book is tough to read and is more suited to an older audience. I wouldn't hesitate to get it for someone in high school if they have already read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But the book is probably more suited to college age and above due to some of the vocabulary and themes the Tolkien presents. There are also a lot of names used by Tolkien, so at times it can be a little cumbersome to keep track of who is who, where they are from, what they did, etc. but if you can keep attention to detail it is worth the effort. For me, this book is the clearest "Catholic work" of the works of Tolkien on Middle Earth. The introduction almost feels as if it were taken straight from the Bible. But all in all this is a fantastic book and a must-have for anyone who is a fan of the Lord of the Rings.